Diskeeper Vs Defrag: Is Diskeeper worth it?

Hey guys, was hoping you could help me with a dilemma here.

I've used the trial version of Diskeeper on my XP computer many years ago, and I felt that it did help to speed up access times (although I'm not sure if it actually did help, or if it was the placebo effect). Anyways, now I have a 4 year old Win7 32-bit PC and it's quite slow, even though 60% of the HD is empty. There is absolutely no malware on my PC either and it does have sufficient RAM (3.5 gigs to be precise). Reformatting helps, but the PC always become slow over time. I've heard that fragmentation can slow down your PC, and I really want to know if an investment in Diskeeper Pro is worth it. Or is the Windows Defrag utility up to snuff? Diskeeper has garnered good reviews, but I really want the opinions of people who have used it (and no, as much as I'd love to, I can't afford an SSD just yet).

Personally, I'd worry less about defrag than what programs are auto-starting and using up your memory and system resources. You can explore this with SysInternals AutoRuns program. If you really feel you need to defrag (not as necessary on NTFS as it was on FAT32) consider MyDefrag which is free. HTH

Let the OS do it. Windows 7 has a built-in defrag utility which is scheduled to run every week. I've not installed a third party defrag program on any PC since Vista was released. I have seen no noticeable effect. You have not said your PC is quite slow. Quite slow doing what? Booting? During normal operation?

BTW, if you have an SSD Windows 7, 8, & 8.1 will not defrag it as long as it presents itself as an SSD to Windows.

Most 3rd party defragers are only useful if they have other features that make them more useful, like
dismounting drives for chkdsk /r, or displaying SMART info, or doing other more advanced defragging than
Windows alone will allow.

I've had Vopt for many years now and I still find it useful on my many internal mechanical hard disk drives.

Last edited by CLiNT; 2014-07-25 at 08:23.

DRIVE IMAGINGInvest a little time and energy in a well thought out BACKUP regimen and you will have minimal down time, and headache.

I use MyDefrag, and have for years, back when it was JKDefrag. He hasn't updated it in a couple of years, but there's not really any reason.

I use it because it can treat different types of data differently on the disk. For the OS and Program Files, it will leave unfragmented free space in specific gaps, so that temp files can be written close to the program that uses them.

It will compact archival-type data files into contiguous space, since such files are rarely accessed, and aren't likely to be changed.

I run it through Task Scheduler, and have disabled the Windows built-in defrag schedule. MyDefrag uses the Windows defrag API, just uses different algorithms for file placement, so it's sort of like Windows defrag on steroids. It just tells the Windows defrag utility "move this file there", and Windows does the actual moving of the file.

Create a new drive image before making system changes, in case you need to start over!

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